Nineteen Eighty Four
Secker & Warburg, 1949.
First edition. Original green cloth with red lettering on the spine in dark green dustwrapper with wraparound band. A fine copy in a fine dustwrapper, which is bright and crisp and virtually free from wear, to which this dustwrapper is particularly prone with the scarce wraparound band clean and intact. An exceptional copy of a remarkably fragile dustwrapper.
One of the major highlights and prophetic writings of the twentieth century. Orwell began writing Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1945, knowing that he would need to change publisher in order to see it in print. As he had found with Animal Farm Orwell's novels were now opposed to Gollancz's political principles, and so it was the firm of Secker & Warburg (also the publishers of Animal Farm) who took on the book. The book was due to be finished in early 1948, though when the time came Orwell told his publishers
"It is just a ghastly mess as it stands, but the idea is so good that I could not possibly abandon it."
It was published in June 1949 and by October had sold over 22,000 copies. Such phrases as 'Double Think', 'Newspeak' and 'Big Brother' coined in the book have since become common parlance and the novel a cornerstone of dystopian literature.
The book itself has two states of dustwrapper, one in maroon and one in green, although no precedence is established.
Fenwick A12a; Connolly 99; Burgess p46
Stock ID: 31995
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